Buffalo, New York - The Metro Rail That Never Was, Part 1

Found this in my files, and I thought I'd get it online before I finish packing. This is the design for Buffalo's HEAVY RAIL rolling stock, from the April 1974 edition of the NFT Metro Newsletter.

I've got line drawings of the proposed "A" and "B" cars, too. I'll post them in a few weeks, if anybody's interested.

Not bad for a 29 year old design, huh?

RAPID TRANSIT CAR DESIGNED FOR NFTA

The sleek rail rapid transit vehicle shown above has been designed for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority by Peter Muller-Munk Associates, of Pittsburgh. Electrically propelled, the trains will pick up power from a third rail carrying 650 volts of direct current. They will travel at about 55 MPH (90 kph).

Each Metro car will be 9'6" (2.9m) wide, 67' (20.5 m) long, and 11'2" (3.4 m) high from the top of the rail. The front end will be a fiberglass molding, with two windshields and en emergency evacuation door, and will provide for the train operator's cab and controls.

The photograph shows the NFTA Metro car as it would look at a platform in a subway station. The Metro transit stations will be designed to accomodate six-car trains, operating at 2-minute headways in peak traffic hours. The Metro cars will comfortable seat 60 seated passengers and 52 standees, for a total of 112 passengers in normal rush hour loading. They will have a maximum crush-load capacity of more than 200 passengers. The large, attractive picture windows will have tinted glass. There will be three sliding doors on each side of the car. These doors will permit two persons to enter or exit simultaneously.

Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey